1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system designed to retrieve and process data such as telephone numbers, IP numbers, or cable numbers and, more particularly, to assigning common identifiers having some relationship information to the data and dynamically generate, store, and update therefrom calling rules.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the passage of the Telecommunications Act (xe2x80x9cthe Actxe2x80x9d) of 1996, the United States telecommunications industry is in a state of radical change. Among other things, the Act requires that Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (xe2x80x9cILECxe2x80x9d), regulated entities that own and administer existing access networks, provide to any requesting telecommunications carrier (i.e., Competing Local Exchange Carriers (xe2x80x9cCLECxe2x80x9d)) nondiscriminatory access to network elements to provide telecommunications service. Further, ILECs have a duty to provide to CLECs interconnection with their network for the transmission and routing of telephone exchange service and exchange access. The interconnection contemplated by the Act provides nondiscriminatory access or interconnection to such services or information as necessary to allow the requesting CLEC to implement local dialing parity, including nondiscriminatory access to telephone numbers, operator service, directory assistance, and directory listing, with no unreasonable dialing delays.
The provisions of the Act have demonstrated a need for competing exchange carriers to be interconnected so that customers can seamlessly receive calls that originate on another carrier""s network and place calls that terminate on another""s carrier""s network without performing additional activities, such as dialing extra digits, etc. However, often the local calling areas provided by ILEC are difficult to maintain in a billing system.
The fact that the local calling area is public still does not make the information usable to CLECs for a number of reasons. First, the information is complex, consisting of hundreds or thousands of prefix phone digits to map out the local calling area for each major market. The analysis needed to gather and load such information into a billing system is costly for CLECs, which usually are under financial pressure from investors seeking to see marketing strategies implemented quickly and cheaply.
Second, the configuration of the local calling area can change on a daily basis. It is even more difficult for CLECs to track changes in a local calling area configuration on an ongoing basis than it is to set up the configuration once. For example, if a CLEC has a marketing plan that offers customers a discount from the ILEC""s rate for a local call, then the CLEC""s billing system must not only detect every local call using the same definition of local calling area as the ILEC, but must maintain the CLEC""s billing system so that it is updated every time the local calling area changes. Without proper maintenance the customer is not getting the plan that the CLEC is selling. Even a single new telephone prefix in an ILEC local calling area can render the CLEC out of synch with the ILEC.
Furthermore, the local zone does not have a geometrical shape and is not defined by mere distance but it is a predefined geographical shape. Thus, currently, some competitors rate local calling methods by distance which results in including more people in the zone that are outside the geographical local zone thereby causing CLECs to lose money.
It is an object of the present invention to provide for an apparatus and method including a group of points mapping unit dynamically mapping one or more points to one or more groups of points; a zone creator unit dynamically identifying the one or more groups of points having same calling areas and dynamically generating therefrom one or more local zones; and an assignment unit dynamically assigning an identifier to each group of points in each zone.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide for an apparatus and method including a group of points mapping unit dynamically mapping and updating one or more points to one or more groups of points; a zone creator unit dynamically identifying and updating the one or more groups of points having same calling areas and dynamically generating therefrom one or more local zones; and an assignment unit dynamically assigning and updating an identifier to each group of points in each zone.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide for a computer readable storage medium controlling a computer and including a process of mapping, dynamically, one or more Points to one or more groups of Points; identifying, dynamically, the one or more groups of Points having same calling areas and dynamically generating therefrom one or more local zones; assigning, dynamically, an identifier to each group of Points in each zone; and generating, dynamically, calling rules using the identifier assigned to each group of Points in each zone.
The above objects can be attained by a system that dynamically retrieves, processes, and generates local calling rules for billing purposes. The system of the present invention includes a Local Zone Configuration Tool including an Interface Module and a Business Logic Module. The Interface Module retrieves in real time, dynamically, from a file tariff database a group of telephone numbers, IP numbers or cable numbers (i.e., Points). The Business Logic Module includes a Local Zone Creator Module and a Rule Generator. The Local Zone creator Module includes a Group of Points Mapping unit, a Zone Creator unit, and an Assignment of Identifier unit.
The Group of Points unit dynamically maps the Points to one or more groups of Points. The Zone Creator unit dynamically identifies the group of Points that have the same calling areas and dynamically generates therefrom one or more local zones. The Assignment of Identifier unit dynamically assigns an identifier to each group of Points in each zone. The Rule Generator dynamically generates calling rules using the identifier to each group of Points in each zone and counts the number of identifiers assigned to each group of Points. The Business Logic Module further stores and updates the groups of Points, the local zones, the identifier to each group of Points in each zone, and the calling rules.
These together with other objects and advantages which will be subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.